Review: Angry Birds

Angry Birds in an inexplicable phenomenon. In the mobile market, where small, bite size games are king, and low price points are key to success, it has blazed a trail of simple gameplay and a cute aesthetic. Angry Birds is seemingly able to overcome the fact that as a game, it really isn’t very interesting.

The Minis version of the game contains exactly the same levels as the iOS version, although without the stream of updates that version received. What you have here is a relatively substantial version of a game that comes in at roughly 4 times the price of its iOS counterpart. The game has you flinging small birds at structures, hoping to crush the evil pigs found within their walls. There are multiple birds to fling, with each one bringing with it a special ability, such as the power to split into 3 smaller birds, or to explode, which come in particularly handy when dealing with sturdier surfaces, such as stone. However, the game doesn’t deliver enough ideas to help keep it fresh, with new birds trickling in after the initial rush of avian diversification. The game has a large selection of levels, but with no option to skip, you’ll find yourself stuck until you brute force your way through some of the trickier challenges. This problem was solved through paid dlc in the iOS version, but those changes aren’t to be found here.

Angry Birds also possesses some of the most inexplicable slowdown I’ve yet to encounter. The PSP and the PS3 can run some pretty hefty physics based games, so why is it that toppling a small tower in Angry Birds causes the system to stutter and strain. The problems are at their worst in the PSP version, with the PS3 version managing to possess the necessary computing power needed to run Angry Birds, but only barely. It seems that the game requires some kind of space console from the future in order to run it, which is doubly confusing when the iOS version runs on an iPhone 3G without a hitch. Also, the game’s nature as a mini means that you’re stuck with a load of bird noises as your soundtrack, which is more of a problem with minis as a whole than the game itself. Still, an option to turn off squawks would have been much appreciated.

I’m honestly struggling to think for reasons as to why Angry Birds is so popular. The game gets dull after 20 minutes, and the whole aesthetic of the title is grating. Plus, the ultimate insult is the pricing. At $3.99, that’s a whole $3 more than the price of the iOS version, which is a version that comes with more features. It’s almost as if Rovio doesn’t want people to buy their game on a console. Regardless, Angry Birds isn’t as fun as it’s made out to be.

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review purposes. For more info on our review policy click here. This review is for the PlayStation Portable version of the game.